Don counsels pupils on essay competition

Senior secondary pupils who wish to submit entries for this year’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) National Essay Competition have been advised to desist from plagiarism or any other sharp practices when sending their entries, as defaulters would be disqualified by the panel of judges.

A professor of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, and Chairman of the panel of judges for the competition, Ralph Akinfeleye, has also called on parents, teachers, principals, among others, to guide their wards against such practices.

Akinfeleye, who lamented the high rate of examination malpractices in the country, said traces of it reflected in previous editions of the essay competition where many contestants could not defend the beautiful entries they sent when they were invited for the second stage of the competition to ascertain if they were the true writers of the essays.

At a briefing last Thursday at the bank’s head office in Marina, Lagos, Akinfeleye also said interested candidates have till Friday, November 1 to submit entries.

After sifting through the entries, Akinfeleye said the panel of three judges would select the best 12 entries, each of which must earn up to 70 per cent from the three judges. The essayists would be invited to undergo a second essay test on another topic at the UBA Academy.

“UBA has its own quality control mechanism.Though the bank believes the students wrote the essay, if they are not quite sure whether it was written by students, then they will have to summon the first 12 to write on another topic before competent invigilators that will eventually select the three finalists,” he said.

Responding to a question from a pupil on whether the judges would be objective in grading the entries, which would come in their thousands, Akinfeleye assured him that the judges are ‘quarantined’ during the process and well taken care of to ensure that they are thorough.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, UBA Foundation Ijeoma Aso, said the first, second and third prize winners will receive N1,000,000, N750,000 and N500,000 as education grants.

She added that with the entries increasing from 719 in 2011 to 2,281 in 2012, the foundation expects even more pupils to participate this year.

“The Essay competition is meant to complement UBA Foundation’s ‘Read Africa Initiative’ which is also part of the Foundation’s efforts in arresting the falling standard of education on the continent. This year we expect to receive more than 4000 entries for the competition. We encourage all senior secondary students across the country to send an entry with the next six weeks when the competition will be open,” she said.

The Divisional Head, Marketing and Corporate Relations, UBA Plc, Mr Charles Aigbe, said the competition cuts across four focus areas of the Foundation-education, economic empowerment, environment and special project.